Music news: The Strokes announce ‘Reality Awaits’ album

The New York legends will make a return ‘this summer’ to release their seventh full-length album after a six-year hiatus. 

After the roaring success of 2020’s comeback album, The New Abnormal, it has been quite the period of radio silence from the five-piece. 

Julian Casablancas and co. originally burst onto the scene in 2001 with the release of the classic album ‘Is This It’, cementing themselves as indie music royalty with subsequent releases. 

A leading force for the 2000s garage-rock movement, the group have been credited as direct influences for major acts including Arctic Monkeys, The Killers and Kings of Leon. 

Music News Blitz’s Freddie Thomas-Neher went further into the upcoming release. 

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Staggered announcement and ‘Going Shopping’ 

The tagline ‘In the Flesh, It’s Even Sexier’, alongside a 1980s Nissan 300ZX, headed the short teaser video for the band’s new project and without a formal release date yet, the confirmation will bring a sigh of relief to fans worldwide. 

A reference to a Jaguar XJS ad, the trailer marked a new aesthetic direction for the band in a way almost reminiscent of Neil Young’s Trans album (although hopefully Reality Awaits is a bit better). 

Six years on from the New Abnormal, the New York legends have been announced for pretty much every single festival you can shake a stick at, but while this would usually mean a new, full-length LP for any other band, The Strokes are ever the contrarians. 

The announcement, faintly referencing a release sometime ‘this summer’, comes after a promotional mailing list was made available for fans to sign up to, sparking rumours that a new full-length project would finally be available. 

Speculation has circulated incessantly since their 2020 success, most notably with producer Rick Rubin stating on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience in 2022 that he had been working on new material with the band in Costa Rica. 

Signing up to the mailing list has had some pretty unexpected happenings for a select few; just 100 fans were chosen at random to receive a cassette of their new single ‘Going Shopping’. 

With new music finally on the way and a tour in the books, it can’t be a jinx now to say that Casablancas and co. are going to cut to the chase. 

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Warm-up performances 

“I guess, why not, right? It’s already out there. A new song.”

Ever the concise orator, Casablancas profoundly made the above statement before the first performance of the new single, a laid-back, jaunty offering reminiscent of their early-2000s crooning. 

Alongside classics including Ode to the Mets, Last Nite and Reptilia, an unreleased introduction has also been performed for the song ‘Life is Simple in the Moonlight’ from 2011’s Angles. 

The performances come as part of a two-part warm-up for their appearances at Coachella, with gigs on April 4 and 6 taking place in San Francisco at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. 

Returning for both weekends, the band will play on April 11 and 18 in what could be a bit of a coming-out party for their shot at the summer’s anthem. 

The Coachella dates are the highest publicised performances for the band in years, with the new material undoubtedly timed to perfection in order to maximise outreach.

They have not played Coachella since a headline slot in 2011, previously having played the festival in 2002. 

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Potential line-up changes

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, it does seem as though there could finally be a permanent change in the ranks for the outfit. 

Frontman Casablancas gave a quote to the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast last year, where he discussed his testy relationship with guitar player Nick Valensi alongside his solo project The Voidz. 

He said: 

“A lot of that energy was maybe subconsciously brought to what I was figuring out with the Voidz and how we operate and stuff and helped improve the Strokes thing too - at least with the three guys that I'm friends with, work with, and talk with still. Sorry Nick, just kidding.”

Adding that “working with people who respect each other is a necessity I discovered.”

Not an outrageous comment, but coupled with a noted absence of Valensi from the band's two warm-up shows, it could spell the end of the original lineup of the indie legends. 

Stand-in Steve Schiltz is also not unfamiliar with the band’s comings and goings; he toured as part of Longwave in support of the New York outfit as early as 2002 and stood in for Valensi previously for a Las Vegas show in September 2025. 

The no-show from the long-time guitar player could simply be a scheduling discrepancy, but with a long history at their backs, this could well spell the end for Valensi as a Strokes member. 

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